10 Steps to Finding Your Happy Place (and Staying There) is a program to help us develop habits to grow a joyful spirit. Many of us sabotage our happiness by habits that we might not even be aware of. Identifying and changing these habits can build a reservoir of well-being to enhance our happy times and sustain us during challenging times.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

The Burning Tree?

I am going to digress from my usual themes to tell you about something that has me flummoxed. On Friday, I was on a train going to Seattle. The weather was mild and sunny. We were delayed on a side rail for about thirty minutes, waiting for a train to pass from the other direction. We were stopped in a business district of some town. Next to the tracks was a street. Across the street was a four or five level office building with a small parking lot in front. Next to the parking lot was a grassy area with one tree positioned about forty feet in front of the building. The tree was some kind of bushy evergreen and grew slightly taller than the roof. There were no people around, only cars driving by on the street.

Someone remarked that there was smoke coming from the tree. Sure enough, smoke was curling from the top part of the tree. As we watched, the smoke rapidly increased in volume and we soon saw flames licking the uppermost branches. The fire rapidly expanded until the entire top of the tree was on fire and the flames started making their way downward.

By then, a man standing in the parking lot was on his cell phone, and moments later, a fire truck pulled up. The flames were now a third of the way down the tree. The fire fighters hooked up the hose and within minutes there was only a little steam still drifting from the tree. Police had also arrived. Officers and fire fighters and a couple of people from the building talked together, but soon everyone left.

From our perspective on the train, there was no visible damage to the tree. The top branches still looked full and green. During the fire, a few ashes flew into the air, but nothing fell to the grass underneath. There was no sign that the fire ever happened.

All of this happened in about twenty minutes. No one on the train could explain what we had seen. Can you?

CW, That's a plausible explanation, but like you, I can't explain what started the fire. The tree was not close to the building or any power lines. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. The fire clearly started from the top down. Hmmmm.

Carolyn, We watchers on the train all agreed that the tree was too far from the building to have thrown something from the roof or a window, unless it was propelled somehow. Love the little helicopter idea! I think the town was Auburn. Great idea to see if it made the local news.

Now that would be interesting if it was Rod or something from the Twilight Zone, but possibly someone may have (tossed a lit cigarette out a window or ?) and everyone on your train may have missed it? I seem to remember talking about things mysteriously igniting in science class... ...and thanks for your nice comment on my Saturday Centus post, and sharing it with a friend....maybe she should try Jenny's Saturday Centus!

Hmm... now you've got me thinking... I've heard of self-combustion due to dry needles composting, but in the top of the tree? Also, I doubt it would be dry enough in Seattle, especially at this time of year. I'm stumped.

OMG you are messin' with my mind. I don't have much of one to begin with; but, stories like this are enough to put me over the top. I have no notion whatever this phenomenon might be---but I hereby order you to stop whatever you are now doing and get back on that train and go back to the town and find out what the H is going on. That means if you have to climb up into the tree, do it! Oh, and BTW---don't forget to take your camera. Hugs :)

I tried to see a sign that would tell me where it was. I think the town was Auburn, but I couldn't see any street signs for a more specific location and the building didn't have a name on it on the side facing the tracks.

Galen, I was saying that tongue in cheek then, but on a seriousnote, such is life I guess. We move so fast in life, that some thingsjust look like a quick blur on the horizon, and though it was just afleeting visual input for us, it may be a whole life changing eventfor others down on the ground near the tree. Some times we just do notknow, or understand ( or even wish to understand sometimes in some)and carry on focusing on the tiny things in our own closed life.When Iam travelling I look at people and always wonder what kind of lifethey have, where they are headed to or what misfortunes made them whatthey are today ( when I see drunks, druggies etc) and always wonderwhat might have happened if they had not met a burning tree in theirlives. wasted potential is the saddest thing in life, I guess. Sorry. I digress. Murali

That is really weird. It reminds me a bit of those stories of spontaneous combustion which have apparently been well attested, in Victorian times anyhow! I think even Dickens mentions a case.

I think what puzzles me about this is that the top of the tree was apparently burning, yet afterwards it looked lush and green. If it hadn't been for that, I'd have said that one half of the tree (the half facing away from you) had burnt but the other half hadn't.

Jenny, Really? I'm going to have to do some research! Your idea might be true. The firefighters were standing on the side of the tree facing the train, but maybe the water was going through to the other side. Of course that still doesn't explain how it started. Hmmm.

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About Me

I am a Southern girl transplanted to the Pacific Northwest. I have 5 kids, 2 grandchildren, 6 birds, and a dog.
My new blog, No Way Cafe, is about how the principle of wu wei, or non-action, can manifest in our lives, bringing peace and joy to our spirits. This blog is inspired from many sources, including the Tao Te Ching and my martial arts practice.
My first blog was about 10 habits that transformed my life from one grounded in fear to one grounded in joy. I no longer add new material to this blog but it's still online.
Galen Pearl is my pen name.